Put down your guns

The US, disappointed at Pakistan's decision to launch a string of missile tests, is continuing its bid to defuse the crisis that is stoking fears of nuclear war in southern Asia.

Pakistan test-fired a missile yesterday, its government said. The domestically developed medium-range missile was fired in northern Pakistan, an officer announced.

Pakistan had notified India on Friday that it would conduct missile tests over the next few days.

Pakistan said the tests were routine and had "nothing to do with the current situation" - but Washington was clearly perturbed at the timing.

"We are disappointed in this," State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker said. "They are fully aware of our position, we have made it quite clear that we think, given the current situation, the focus should be on steps to reduce tensions in the region. ");document.write("

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"We continue to urge both sides to take steps to restrain their missile programs and their nuclear weapons programs, including that there be no operational deployment of nuclear-armed ballistic missiles," he said.

India has described the tests as "antics".

As Indian and Pakistan troops pounded each other with mortars on the front line in Kashmir, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned the two sides that a wider war was unthinkable.

"It would be bad. It would not be pretty. It would not be short-lived," Mr Rumsfeld said.

He said that message had been delivered to India during US-Indian defence talks at the Pentagon that ended yesterday.

"We made the point that war is not an option, given the dangers of escalation and the risks of uncertainty in an armed conflict between two nuclear-armed powers," he said.

In Moscow, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the crisis had reached a "very critical point".

"We will get them to step back," he said. Mr Powell had spoken earlier with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh.

The US is playing a major role in efforts to get both sides to back down in the crisis, in which India is accusing Pakistan of doing too little to halt cross-border terrorism.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is due in the region next week and US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage the week after.

Pakistan's test came as it appeared that tensions were easing, with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee heading north of New Delhi on Friday for a three-day holiday.